Absurdist Fiction

You like Jeff Goldblum. We like Jeff Goldblum. Helen McClory really likes Jeff Goldblum. So lie back, Jurassic Park-style, and prepare to enjoy The Goldblum Variations, a collection of stories, musings, puzzles, and games based on the one and only Jeff Goldblum as he (and alternate versions of himself) travels through the known (and unknown) universe in a mighty celebration of weird and wonderful Goldbluminess.

Blending the piercing humor of Alexandra Kleeman and the jagged satire of Black Mirror, an audacious, eerily prescient debut novel that chronicles the rise and fall of a massive high-rise housing complex, and the lives it affected before - and after - its demise. Standing nearly 500 stories tall, Los Verticalés once bustled with life and excitement. Now this marvel of modern architecture and nontraditional urban planning has collapsed into a pile of rubble known as the Heap.

Lo incontriamo da ragazzino mentre "scarpagna" verso le Bisacconi (le scuole elementari del paese). Sono gli anni '50 e mentre ruba in una vigna un grappolo di schizzozibibbo, Lupetto, così lo chiamano, vede un uomo alto, con una barba immensa e un vecchio cane. È una divinità pagana, sporca come un letamaio, che gli regala una facoltà meravigliosa: un orologio interno, un orobilogio, che gli consentirà di correre avanti nel tempo.

Skipper Matthews has an obsession - burgers. It’s all he ever eats. And not just any burgers, Burger Flip burgers - the most famous burger franchise in the world. For the last 11 years, Skip has only eaten at Burger Flip. He even has a life-sized figure of Harry B, the Burger Flip mascot in his living room, not to mention walls of memorabilia and vintage Funny Meal toys. On the heels of his girlfriend Sophia leaving him over his passion and his mom threatening to send him to a shrink, he finally has a choice to make.

In seiner visionären Story Es ist nicht weit nach Gentopia erzählt der Schriftsteller Bernhard Ganter ein modernes Märchen beziehungsweise die Wirklichkeit in ihrer Absurdität. David wird in eine zerrüttete, vergiftete Welt hineingeboren. Kriege, Seuchen und Umweltzerstörung erschüttern unseren Planeten. David ist das Ergebnis einer perfekten Genmanipulation und soll nun die Erde retten. Die Menschen werden ihren Göttern abtrünnig - und erheben David zum Idol - die Metamorphose der Macht beginnt.

Una legione di spiriti diabolici, malvagi, virtuosi, paranoici e sexy contro il conformismo del Megaconcerto di Beneficenza e la violenza dei signori della guerra. Non si sa chi vincerà, ma come dice Stan Hakaleimekalahani "ci sarà gran piagnanza e gran ridanza".

C'era una volta un uomo fatto di salsicce. E c'era una volta una ragazza vegetariana. L'uomo fatto di salsicce aggredisce la ragazza vegetariana. La ragazza vegetariana torna a casa col sangue che cola lungo le cosce, sutura la ferita con ago e filo e prova a fare come se niente fosse. Ma fare come se niente fosse è difficile, perché l'uomo fatto di salsicce non smette di perseguitarla: spiandola dal bosco vicino a scuola, affacciandosi a una finestra, spuntando da un lampione.

Terza raccolta di racconti di Buzzati (apparve nel 1954, dopo "I sette messaggeri" e "Paura alla Scala"), "Il crollo della Baliverna" evidenzia due dei temi fondamentali dello scrittore: il gioco del destino e delle coincidenze che imbrigliano l'uomo senza lasciargli scampo e la dimensione religiosa - sempre presente anche quando non è esplicitata nell'opera buzzatiana - intesa non come "fede", ma come unica possibilità per penetrare il mistero dell'essere. In questi trentasette racconti l'autore dà voce alle contraddizioni umane, alle infinite sfumature della libertà del singolo.

"Das Schloss" - Kafkas Romanfragment - wurde erst im Jahre 1926, also nach dem Tod des Autoren, veröffentlicht. In typisch kafkaesker Manier wird darin vom Landvermesser K. erzählt, dessen einzige Aufgabe im Leben die zu sein scheint, das Schloss zu erreichen - immerhin wurde er von dort bestellt. Doch dies stellt sich als unüberwindliche Aufgabe dar.

Before the clocks stopped, Narwhal Slotterfield was an ordinary basketball referee. He blew his whistle. He stretched the rules. He even had a girlfriend. But then the clock thing happened. Now it’s 7:23 p.m., Narwhal’s in a diner in the middle of the Great Plains, and now is all he’s got.

Evoking such classics as Elmer Gantry and The Day of the Locust, William Giraldi's About Face boldly transfers the perennial literary themes of celebrity, ambition, and obsession to twenty-first-century Boston. There we meet Val Face, a charismatic self-help guru who captivates multitudes with his uncanny ability to heal adherents using only the power of his words, the mysterious touch of his hands, and the transcendent beauty of his face.

Am Morgen seines dreißigsten Geburtstages wird der Bankangestellte Josef K. verhaftet. Doch wieso? Er hat keinerlei Schuldbewusstsein. Auch kann er sich weiterhin frei bewegen und seiner Arbeit nachgehen. K. will herausfinden, was vorgeht, und dringt immer tiefer in einen labyrinthischen Albtraum einer Bürokratie, in der es keine Antworten gibt... Kafkas Romanfragment wurde nach seinem Tode veröffentlicht.

A doomed couple argues over the inevitable. A man weeps when he's finally given the structure he's needed. A stilted voicemail over a date that never happened. With a ballast of wit and reality, William Steffey’s second published work takes on the abstraction of love and does away with frivolity—grounding the listener in snapshots of fulfillment, heartbreak, and reverie. He and She sidesteps the conventional tropes and is privy to the crevices where real love hides.

Was hat es mit dem "malproperen Paket" auf sich, welches beim Einchecken, so gar nicht nach dem Besitztum des "Ästheten" Professor Kaspar Moritz Mauzfies aussehend, bereits in der Doppelkabine auf dem Tisch wartet? Nicht die einzige Überraschung, welche die Schiffspassage auf der "Bocognano" nach Korsika bereithält. Die Reise wird Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts für den Protagonisten zu einem absurd-surreal-psychedelischen Trip...

Lo scrittore Guido Battaglia è un inventore di storie, meglio, di barzellette. In crisi dopo la partenza della collega Valeria, talento prezioso per la stesura d’ogni sua opera, vive smarrito in un’imprecisata città su cui imperversa un bacillo sconosciuto, dando intanto corpo a ricordi e fantasmi. In un’atmosfera sospesa, segnata dal passaggio dei camion del genio militare e delle ambulanze, viene incaricato da due irresistibili ragazze di comporre la storia che salvi non solo la propria, ma tutte le città dall’assedio della “peste nuova”.

Former space trucker Jon Simmons, now bona fide U.S.E. Marshal agent Bob3831, has a murder to solve—and on it rests the fate of the universe. The problem is, he has little experience in detective work and, worse still, no leads. The victim, a high-ranking public figure on Cloisteria—a wealthy planet where only the elite can gain residence—has a hole in his head the size of a peach. And if Jon can't solve the crime, the consequences are unthinkable. But time is against him: The people of Cloisteria are lobbying for independence, and if that happens he'll be taken off the case.

Billy Boustany uncovers a mystery that transforms his sleepy midwestern city into a vibrant metropolis of iridescent skyscrapers, wild parties, and eccentric characters. This parallel world offers the adventure of a lifetime, but it comes with a perilous secret. When Billy shares his adventure with his college student daughter, their exploration leads them to a magnificent city of Native Americans at an ancient site. However, they soon encounter a formidable foe - the Knights, a secret society bent on keeping outsiders away.

What happens when a cop decides to take on a lion? Nothing good, I'll tell you that! Officer Bazzar just wants to get on with his life, but there's a lion who won't leave him alone! How is he ever going to get rid of him? Buy now and find out!

The Odradek is an imaginary creature that appears in the short story "The Concerns of a Family Man" by Franz Kafka . The physical description of the Odradek shows it as a flat, star-shaped spool of thread, with the addition of a few other appendages. Later in the story, Kafka gives the Odradek more human characteristics, being able to stand on two legs and speak. The narrator even gets to have a few conversations with the Odradek, during which the creature's nomadic and possibly immortal nature is emphasized.

A retired general—the leader of the latest military takeover—moves to a peaceful island and decides to rid it of what he sees as its last remaining “anarchic” components. The island, described by its people as a utopia, the last peaceful resort for mankind, morphs into dystopia when the general, in the hope of bringing order to the island life, begins to act more and more like a dictator. The first ones to revolt against the general are the seagulls.